Planetary gear sets normally have a central sun gear having teeth on the periphery thereof, a plurality (normally three) of planet gears circumferentially spaced around the sun gear and mounted on a carrier, and an external ring gear. The input to the planetary gear mechanism can be to the sun gear, the ring gear, or the planet carrier, while the output is from either of the two aforesaid means which are not the input. The planetary gear set is normally mounted within a housing which also acts as a lubrication sump and it is thus partly or completely filled with lubrication. Upon rotation of the elements in a planetary gear set the lubrication is flung outwardly which tends to provide fairly active lubrication of the inner teeth of the ring gear but can provide less than adequate lubrication of the exterior teeth of the sun gear; first because the sun gear may not be immersed in oil and secondly because of the mesh expulsion and viscous centrifugal forces which cause the lubrication to be flung outwardly.
A logical means to provide lubrication to the sun gear teeth is by a separate pump mechanism which would spray oil or lubrication through spray nozzles aimed at the teeth of the sun gear. However, this requires a separate mechanism with the resulting complications. Such a separate pumping mechanism is taught in Tyler U.S. Pat. No. 1,470,947 but with the pump lubricant being fed to the planetary gear bearings. It is desirable to provide forced lubrication toward the sun gear teeth to overcome the centrifugal effect but without requiring such separate mechanism.
The friction gearing mechanism of Rennerfelt U.S. Pat. No. 1,399,443 uses scoop mechanisms on what would be equivalent to a planetary gear carrier to direct housing sump fluid to the bearings of rollers 10 mounted on the carrier. However, it does not direct lubricating fluid to the pinion 18 and probably prefer not to do so because of the friction gearing, rather than teeth gearing, design taught.
Bade U.S. Pat. No. 2,795,155 teaches oil scoops carried on the periphery of the rotating ring gear with the oil directed to the speed reducer gearing and particular bearings therefor.
However, none of the prior art mentioned above specifically shows utilizing scoop or deflector mechanisms carried by a rotating part of the planetary gear set which are used to deflect oil through radially extending openings in the carrier into close proximity with the sun gear teeth, that is the part of the planetary gearing which has great need for lubrication.
Planetary gear sets are furthermore subject to wearing with the highest gear teeth wearing being on the sun gear. While it is possible to remove the sun gear for inspection of its teeth, this is complicated by the fact that the sun gear is located in the center of the mechanism and requires substantial disassembly of the planetary gear mechanism to reach the sun gear for inspection of its teeth. Furthermore, the sun gear shaft (and carrier shaft) are often connected to other equipment such as the prime mover and output of a system, or the planetaries are arranged in multiple stages, which further complicates disassembly.